{"product_id":"champagne-taittinger-blanc-de-blancs-comtes-de-champagne-brut-grand-cru-2014","title":"Champagne Taittinger Blanc de Blancs Comtes de Champagne Brut Grand Cru 2014","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe Grand Marque house of Taittinger carries with it centuries of rich tradition built on exceptional caves hand-dug by the Romans under the Rue Saint-Nicaise, alongside a legacy of timeless leadership. Today’s remarkable 2014 flagship Comtes de Champagne is a knockout vintage of 100% Chardonnay that pulled matching 97s from two of the toughest critics in the game. And right now it’s about $80 under retail.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eLet's talk about Taittinger, because the backstory alone is worth the price of admission. The house started in 1734 as Forest-Fourneaux, when Jacques Fourneaux learned to make wine from the Benedictine monks next door. It only became \"Taittinger\" in 1932, after Pierre Taittinger got stationed at the gorgeous Château de la Marquetterie during WWI, fell hard for it, and vowed to buy it someday – which he did, then stuck his name on the whole operation. Then, the family actually sold Taittinger to an American investment group in 2005 and bought it back a year later. It's family-run again today, and that whole \"we're not letting this go\" energy is baked into the wines.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eComtes de Champagne is the flagship wine – first made back in the 1952 vintage and named after the medieval Counts of Champagne. It's 100% Chardonnay, sourced only from the five Grand Cru villages of the Côte des Blancs (Avize, Chouilly, Cramant, Oger, and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger), using first-press juice only. Then it goes to sleep for years in the Crayères – chalk pits the Romans carved out of the ground beneath Reims – and Taittinger is one of only a handful of houses allowed to age wine down there. That crushed-chalk, struck-flint thing you taste comes straight from the rock.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow, 2014. The summer was a nail-biter – cool, damp, slow-ripening fruit – then September showed up warm and sunny, practically saving the whole vintage, and Chardonnay from the Côte des Blancs turned out to be the runaway star of the year. This bottling landed matching 97-point scores from James Suckling and Vinous, with plenty more praise piling up behind them. It’s dry, precise, and alive, with fleshy apricot, green apple, and warm pastry on the nose, and an almost crystalline clarity running through the whole thing. The palate opens up with lemon zest, clementine, and poached pear, then throws in flickers of coconut sugar and nutmeg before finishing on smoked hay, crumbled chalk, struck flint, and tangerine peel, hanging on the tongue for a genuinely long time.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt'll cellar for 30-40 years, so really, buying only one feels a little irresponsible. Our price is $219.95 against roughly $300 retail, with free shipping on a single bottle. Get a couple and thank yourself in 2040.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFOOD PAIRINGS: This is your excuse to find the best oysters around to make the deliciously classic pairing of briny bivalves plus chalky-bright bubbles.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"First Bottle","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":53283468214569,"sku":"1012179","price":219.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0793\/2706\/8457\/files\/Taittinger_1012179_FB_Rack.jpg?v=1783640676","url":"https:\/\/firstbottlewines.com\/products\/champagne-taittinger-blanc-de-blancs-comtes-de-champagne-brut-grand-cru-2014","provider":"First Bottle Wines","version":"1.0","type":"link"}